texinfo-docs

• Overview
• Repository layout
• Prerequisites
• Build instructions
  • Build everything
  • Build only the Info manuals (no dir file)
  • Regenerate only the local dir file
  • Clean generated files
  • Show what manuals are configured
• Reading the manuals
  • Read with terminal Info
  • Read with Emacs Info
• Adding new documents
• Notes
• License

Overview

This repository is my personal archive of Texinfo sources: small tutorials, notes, and a growing knowledge base that I want to keep in a format that is:

• friendly to offline reading
• searchable
• easy to browse with Info (GNU Info / Emacs Info)
• version-controlled

The sources in this repo are written in Texinfo (.texi). The build process produces corresponding Info files (.info) so that you can read them with:

• info in a terminal
• Emacs M-x info (Emacs Info)

Repository layout

• .texi files live in the repository (by default in the repo root).

• Build outputs go to the local directory info/:

  • info/<manual>.info (generated)
  • info/dir (generated local Info directory menu)

Nothing is installed into the system-wide Info directory by default. This keeps the repository self-contained and avoids needing root permissions.

Prerequisites

You need GNU Texinfo installed (provides makeinfo).

On Fedora:

sudo dnf install texinfo

Build instructions

The repository includes a Makefile that builds all configured manuals and also generates a local info/dir menu.

Build everything

make

This produces:

• info/*.info
• info/dir

Build only the Info manuals (no dir file)

make info

Regenerate only the local dir file

make dir

Clean generated files

make clean

Show what manuals are configured

make list

Reading the manuals

Read with terminal Info

You can point info directly at the repo output directory:

info -d ./info

Then select manuals from the directory menu.

You can also open a manual directly:

info -d ./info interactive-debugging-common-lisp

(Replace the manual name with the basename of another .texi file.)

Read with Emacs Info

To make Emacs find these manuals, add the repository’s info/ directory to Info-additional-directory-list.

The Makefile can print a snippet for you:

make emacs-snippet

Or add something like this to your Emacs config:

(with-eval-after-load 'info
  (add-to-list 'Info-additional-directory-list
               (expand-file-name "~/git/texinfo-docs/info")))

After that you can use:

• M-x info and browse the directory menu
• or jump directly with g and enter (interactive-debugging-common-lisp)

Adding new documents

1. Create a new Texinfo source file, e.g. my-topic.texi.
2. Add it to the list of manuals in the Makefile variable TEXIS.

3. Run:

   make

This will build info/my-topic.info and update info/dir.

Notes

• The generated info/dir is a local directory file intended to be used from this repository (or any directory you add to Emacs’ Info search path). It is not the same as the system-wide /usr/share/info/dir.
• Some documents may be marked as AI-generated (e.g. created with help from ChatGPT). Those notes are included so readers can judge how much independent verification they want.

License

Unless stated otherwise inside an individual document, the contents of this repository are provided under the terms specified by this repository’s license (if present). If no license is present yet, treat the contents as “all rights reserved” and contact me if you want to reuse material.